Results tagged “Gadgets” from All Good Things

Talk about an all-inclusive commodity -- Epson's Artisan 810 prints, copies, scans, faxes, has wireless capability, charges cellphones and MP3 players -- this baby has everything in it but an all you can eat buffet and spa services. But look at the bright side, short of proffering savory comestibles, the 810's ability to kick out Ultra Hi-Definition prints will still have your salivary glands working overtime if you happen to be printing, say, a pastrami sandwich. Make mine with melted swiss and sauerkraut.

The standard issue all-in-one is supposed to be more handy than it is performance-oriented, sacrificing image quality for convenience and space-saving. Home office users and small businesses are the general target audience for that breed of workaday machine. Contrarily, the Epson 810 aims to provide high-end, creative types the ability to realize a variety of laser-sharp objets d'art. Not that it wouldn't multi-task more than adequately in a business setting! To boot, the 810 also has automatic double-sided printing if you like saving trees while you toil away. It's good to be green, no?

As I happen to traffic in the dark alleys of the music business for my creative jollies, the 810's ability to print crisp images onto a CD appeals to me particularly, and works flawlessly. You can use Epson's included Print CD software, or import an existing JPG into the Epson realm, then print it directly to disc. Serious photographers will be equally giddy. The degree of control, speed and level of image quality is astounding. All that and a USB port to charge your straggling peripherals and you've got more than an all-in-one, you've got an all-in-one that's all-that (and considerably more).

A capacious touchscreen means ergonomic ease without squinting at the small print, and the operating instructions are instinctual enough that a digital moron (like myself) can absorb them without burning a calorie, ziss is the coup de grace -- that and the quite reasonable price for such a smorgasbord of top chef features. Under two hundred clams, $2.50 for extra cheese. Ordering!!

I may be a little late to this 21st Century Digital Orgy, but I am like a kid in a sody-shoppe with this amazing new box o' bytes: The Roku Netflix Player, a tiny rectangle of silicon swirls that turns a mere teevee set into an all-you-can-fathom smorgasbord of entertainment possibilities. Call me slack-jawed, dumbfounded or Jed Clampett -- I care little, this baby is a life-changer.

Here's the lowdown: for a mere hundred smackers or less, and a nine-buck a month subscription to Netflix, you done escaped the mind-numbing hegemony of dreck cable programming and infomercials and gabbing heads and all the rest. Instead, you open up a web-browser and scan the 17,000-plus entries at Netflix.com, make with a couple of mouse-clicks and presto, you're watching "Streetcar Named Desire" instead of Rachael Ray, the superior Ricky Gervais version of "The Office" instead of the insipid knockoff Yank version. I may never leave the bedroom again. Hold my calls, Virginia.

Even cooler, the tech spex of the Roku box are nonpareil: it seeks and easily finds your home wireless set-up, meaning no need for an ethernet cable; the set-up is easy even for the neuronally enfeebled (like myself); the picture is crisp and clean, especially if you use the HDMI output to your similarly enabled set. Ten minutes later, you start lining up your favorite selections -- they stream, you pause, rewind, fast forward, just like the glory days of the old VHS, but without boxes and tapes and all that mess. I've got half a mind to ditch the old satellite service, but what would I do without my dose of Bill O'Reilly to get my digestive juices churning? Roku gets my vote for Xmas gift of the season.

(p.s., Roku also shakes hands with Facebook and flickr and Pandora Radio to stream pictures and music through the former idiot-box -- which, one must confess, gets smarter every day!)

Ready for a breathless string of hyphens the likes of which no digital camera maker can lay claim to? The new Stylus Tough-8000 from Olympus is: Shock-proof; Water-proof; Freeze-proof and even Crush-proof. Specifically, you can go as deep as 33 feet underwater, shoot snowmen and polar bears down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, drop the camera from 6.6 feet and even stomp on it (up to 220 lbs. of pressure) -- without hearing a squeak or a whimper.

You can feel the heft in your hand when you hold the 8000 -- this is not your niece's digital camera, more like your white-water rafting third cousin's, the daredevil. Capable of shooting at 12 megapixels, this latest in the Stylus line can make up for your shake and bake hobbies with dual image stabilization and a 3.6 optical zoom. Not only that, one has the ability to change settings and issue commands by tapping once or twice on the side or top of the camera -- very handy when you're wearing hockey or diving gloves, as I so often do.

Of course, it's not just ruggedness that makes this unit so useful, it's that it has all the elements of a great, everyday handheld camera -- a super-bright 2.7" HyperCrystal III LCD display, a zoom which takes you from a wide-angle 28mm to 102mm telephoto and face detection technology that insures your human subjects are in focus and perfectly exposed. There is also a boon to those of us too techno-challenged to make wise exposure choices -- the Intelligent Auto Mode that analyzes the image being photographed and uses one of five templates or "scene modes" to select the optimal settings. All that and an ultra-cool Platinum Silver housing that makes the 8000 look more like a lab instrument than a point and shoot. Truth is, you could probably bring down a grizzly with one swift camera-in-hand blow. That, my friends, is not in the manual, nor recommended.

The Digital World's virtues -- faster, smaller, more portable, etc. -- are also one's undoing if you happen to be a trifle absent-minded. I probably waste a cumulative hour a week searching my pockets for the cellphone, the digital camera or the iPod Touch. Pathetic, I know. Which is why I am so enamored of the new Eye-Fi Share Video wireless memory card, a Wi-Fi-enabled SD storage device for your digital camera that instantly uploads photos to your computer or even the website of your choice (Facebook, Flickr and such like). You needn't remove it from the camera, insert it somewhere else, nor click your mouse till your wrists need physical therapy.

It takes just minutes to configure the Eye-Fi with your home computer, at which time you can select which photo-sharing websites you'd like to upload to. The 4GB card holds up to 2,000 photos or ninety minutes of video, all for about $80 smackers, a swell value indeed. The card is compatible with hundreds of digital cameras, but check the website to make sure it works with yours. Eye-Fi also makes a 2GB version and a Pro card that transmits RAW images and streamlines the workflow when you're shooting those barely-clad models in Fiji.

Dutch company EKS is one of the venerable names in the DJ-Gear World, known for its innovative design and indestructible workmanship. Latest off their line is Otus, a software/MIDI controller that eliminates the need to carry around bulky dual-CD decks and a thousand pound pile of music. Download drivers, attach cables to laptop, configure the software (probably Traktor or Deckadance) -- and boom, you are ready to spin, chop, mash-up and beat-match to your heart's content. Not only that, you are going to look subzero cool doing it.

Touch sensitive controls and a smoothly solid illuminated 7.5" jog wheel provide most of the hands-on action, enabling one to scroll through vast amounts of music on your laptop without having to mouse around in a dark and cavernous club. You can even adjust the touch-sensitivity of the controller surface to make sure it's working ergonomically correct. And speaking of efficiency, the whole rig runs off your computer's USB bus, so there's no need for additional power cables.

As cool as it presents itself, the real goal is shoe-shattering dance-floor sounds, and Otus is well up to that task as well. Its Burr-Brown sound card delivers fat basses and shimmery high-frequency transients without distortion. The touch-sensitive platter dominates the surface and -- like other jog-wheels -- acts as a pitch bend when touched on the side and scratches when you touch the top. The pitch slider takes a bit of getting used to and the overall feel of the aluminum-sheathed unit is solid without being bulky.

In the end, you do have to be able to re-orient your thinking to get the most out of Otus, but once you've bowed down to its forward-looking grid, you can control two decks with the ease of steering an automobile, and with twice the MPG! This is technology at its best.

To quote Beavis (or was it Butthead?): "Belkin is, uhh, cool." With a quick eye on the ever-mutating tech-landscape, this Compton-based company is right on time when it comes to cyber-accessorizing. Best known perhaps for its line of iPod add-ons -- cases, cables and the like -- it also makes reliably-constructed hubs and cables, surge protectors and laptop cases, anything you can imagine. And at prices that beat the competition to a pulp. Nice formula...

Latest to hit the streets is Belkin's Easy Transfer Cable for Windows™7, a painless and ergonomic way to migrate all those pre-7 files and user accounts, program settings and email contacts, all in a sanitary 3-step process: Install software; connect cable; follow onscreen prompts. Sounds like something an old Luddite like myself could even handle.
And much faster than burning data to disks or setting up a network. It reportedly can transfer 7,500 songs in an hour via its USB 2.0 connection. Zoom!

Also on the ultrahep hardware beat, Belkin's Home Base is one of those miracle boxes that enables anyone on your network to wirelessly share printers, hard drives or other devices. Music, photos, videos -- even poached eggs on English muffins -- can be moved from parlor to office to entertainment center, all with a click of the mouse. Media files can be accessed directly from Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and other DLNA client devices. Share the Digi-Wealth!!

This, my friends and neighbors and ships at sea, is the only way to go when you're finicky about preparing meat -- whether in the kitchen or manning the barbecue. The Chef's Laser Probe Combo from Bonjour Products is the pro way to go, giving one instant temperature readings either externally or internally. Aim this beam of quantum energy at the surface of that tri-tip roast and get one temperature -- then swivel the little probe away from the hand-held marvel and insert into cooking sacred cow: Voila! You have a fussless, mussless, real-time read of what those beef molecules are up to.

Bakers will find this invaluable as well. Given the vagaries of oven thermostats, it's nice to be able to pre-heat and then check the accuracy of your instrument panel before sending that apple pie to its date with destiny. I use mine with that groovy outdoor pizza oven made by Forno Bravo to tell when it's time to slide those delicate little pies onto the stone floor for a brief spell.

This little sonofagun offers a pistol grip, laser target aim, instant readout and backlit display. All that and a range from -76 to 932 degrees Fahrenheit, powered by a mere couple of AA batteries. Will miracles never cease? Does Satan have one to make sure sinners are getting their just desserts? I'm putting that on my Xmas list for him....

I admit to a measurable amount of immaturity in my decrepit old feller's body, and thus may hold on to a few of Jakks Pacific cooler toys for myself -- especially that pair of EyeClops Night Vision Infrared Stealth Binoculars pictured above. I have a black dog named Gwen who blends into the backyard after dusk and she turns up on these babies like she had a neon sign on her back! Wow. Neato. Coolio. You can see up to 50 feet away in complete darkness.

And for the budding scientist/entomologist in the family, the EyeClops Bionic Eye SE Microscope is also high-tech-at-a-low-price for the kiddies. I took this one over to my 6-year-old niece, and we oohed and aahed at gargantuan grains of salt, hair roots, blades of grass, even (heaven forbid) what I thought was my smooth, unblemished cheek. Almost needed a comfort bag after that experiment! Niece Alex loved it, giggly and wide-eyed till we were reluctantly called in to supper. Wah!! (Also, have a gander at the Discovery Kids Safari Scope -- great for the budding urban astronomer/voyeur!)

More girly stuff abounds at Jakks cornucopia of youngster delights: The Girl Gourmet Bakery Set, endorsed by no less than Duff Goldman of the Food Network's Ace of Cakes. Your little darling can design, decorate and microwave-bake custom cakes in 30 seconds. For, um, dessert (!) the little monsters can make edible jewelry with the Girl Gourmet Sprinkle Art Jewelry Set. Hmm, in my day, you tried to keep kids from swallowing their toys, and now? The young ladies will also dig the Sing Scene line, where they can warble to the hits of Rihanna and Taylor Swift for a fraction of the competitor's price tag.

Don't forget the little boy devils! And Jakk's line of Plug It in & Play TV Games are Wii-less, affordable alternatives to the high-end controllers. The Star Wars: Clone Wars game is some vivid alien-killing action with a 30th century piece of plastic hardware for aiming and shooting. I love educational toys. For you carnivores, train the lad to take out Bambi and Co. with the Big Buck Hunter, where you plug into the tv, aim your rifle and take down video bucks like it was "open season in your living room." That's a clever line from the Jakks Pacific website -- credit for sardonic irony to whom it is deserved. I surrender!!! Mucho mas goodies at the endless Jakks site!

This may be a bit arcane -- it's not every day you might need batteries for your sump pump or your tennis ball shooting machine, but if you do, I've found a company that can power your world. Batteryspec.com is your one-stop shop for all things voltaic, veteran owned-and-operated and staffed with some of the friendliest folks outside of one of them hippie communes. One Michelle Evans handled my order for replacement batteries for my eGO electric cycle (a previous AGT entry), and couldn't have been more gracious, professional, even witty! We commend the folks in San Jose for their judicious eye when it comes to staff.

What are your power needs? Wheelchair batteries? Yep. Camcorder? Covered. Jet-Ski? Yesirree. Snowmobiles, medical, lawnmowers -- yes, yes, yes! What else? Great prices, incomparable customer support and lickity split delivery. 1-800-727-VOLT gets you to one of their ace Power Rangers. Batteryspec is a credit to flowing electrons everywhere! Power to the people.....

Home phones, even the cordless variety, seem to be going the way of the horse and buggy, but the forward-looking r&d types at VTech seem to think otherwise. Their new LS6245 Dect Phone looks and behaves like a futuristic prop from "Minority Report," replete with a groovy, white-backlit keypad and a large reverse LCD. It would not look out of place next to James Bond's cocktail shaker or his laser toenail clipper.

Aside from its tall, dark and slender good looks, the 6245's DECT technology, more familiar to Europeans, offers crystal clear sound, expanded range and superior eavesdropping protection. You don't want just anyone learning your secret egg salad recipe, do you? To boot, this gun of a son has Bluetooth connectivity, meaning that -- coupled with your cellphone -- it obviates the need to locate the cell when you hear it ringing. Simply pick up the 'house-phone' and commence gabbing.

It's got more standard features covered as well: digital answering system, accessible from the handset; Dual caller ID and call waiting; and for the teenagers, a collection of polyphonic musical ringtones. My daughter Phoebe surreptitiously loaded some funky riffs on mine -- somehow I always think Rick James is calling when the phone rings. Super freaky, that. The touch sensitive pad is quite sensitive, so keep your hair trimmed! I have put people on hold with my curls inadvertently. But for that, $80 bucks buys you a very cool, expandable system.

Don't get me wrong: I know small is beautiful, that good things come in small packages, etc., etc. But, truth is, the tiny black housing that holds Agfa's superb Optima 2338mT digital camera boggles the braincells -- how do you squeeze such crystalline photographic image-making into something that wouldn't hold enough Milk Duds to make it through two cartoons and a trailer? Twelve megapixels of light-gathering power in the palm of your hand -- what indeed, will they conjure up next? Optic nerve to USB direct image transfer system? Never say never....

Let's get away from all this, um, small talk for a minute. Amazingly, this pint-sized marvel also boasts a full 3" TFT LCD viewing screen on its wee backside, yet is still as bright and laser-sharp as you please. Not only that, it's a touch-screen, meaning you needn't always be scrolling and clicking to change parameters just when Junior's about to swing at the 3-2, bases-loaded fastball! There's even a face-tracking function that recognizes a human being faster than an FBI man, and, better yet, a smile detector that zeroes in on those happy pearly whites (I wonder if it obscures frowns?).

Other fab features abound: the video recording function can save your Citizen Kane moments and instantly format them for YouTube uploading and certain micro-posterity. The optical zoom checks in at 3X and the digital at 5X, the shutter ranges from a full second to a 2000th of a second and the image stabilization makes sure there's no blur at the slower exposures. There's also a built-in loudspeaker for the video clips, a burst function for snapping off ten quick clicks in a row and 24 different "Scene Modes" -- from Sport to Night Shooting. All that and the Serious Black Look that will set you apart from all the greenhorn point-and-shoot hordes for around three hundred clams, a see-food bargain you can't afford to pass up.

Is it a bad thing to have a dinner party and find your guests huddled around your washer and dryer instead of eating the hors d'oeuvres you slaved over for hours?? Such was my bemoanable fate last weekend when the assembled urbanites espied the admittedly handsome Maytag 9000 adjacent to the kitchen. They oohed at the sleek 'oxide' finish, ahhed at the near silent operation (yes, I was forced to demo the modern marvel!), and left with their jaws agape in envy that evening, forgetting to compliment me on the beef bourguignon! Thanks, Maytag.....

Actually, I'm not as mad as I sound. The 9000 is the top of the line in Maytag's Performance Series and brings commercial-grade components (heavy duty springs, belts and hinges; beefed-up motors) into a home machine, assuring one years of carefree operation. The 4.4 cu. ft. basket accommodates a boatload of laundry, and the luxury of steam for cleaning power and sanitizing benefits. The controls are intuitive, and most functions are monitored by the machine itself -- sensor-controlled suds detection, timed release of detergent and Intellifill water level sensor. All you have to do is load and lock. Ah, the joys of intelligent design!

The dryer is no slouch either. It too is capable of producing steam on demand, and there's no reservoir to fill - it connects to the existing water-line. You can add steam to an entire load, or use the feature to sanitize small items you'd rather not wash -- like pillows and stuffed animals. Maytag's proprietary GentleBreeze Drying System employs a "diagonal airflow" to dry clothes just as quickly as it took to wash them. Both machines are Energy Star qualified, meaning you'll be using 70% less water and 70% less energy than conventional top-loaders. Green, lean and built to clean -- this is American technology at its finest. Next time I throw a party, however, I'm covering this fancy pair with a big sheet -- I do so hate being upstaged!

I approached the demo table at a trade show recently with a healthy dose of skepticism: the BevWizard Wine Smoother could reputedly turn a glass of humble Two-Buck Chuck into a 1966 Chateau de Plateau by simply pouring the rotgut through the twist-on device. Inside its modest plastic shell, a high intensity magnetic field would "alter the structure of the tannins" to yield a softer and silkier "mouthfeel." Er, I don't know nuttin' 'bout tannins and magnets, but a before and after tasting, with and without the Smoother, was a Cheapskate Epiphany of the highest order! Hoodoo or science, this little badboy actually worked!

Next up was a hit of Jack Daniel's, which I have been known to occasionally imbibe with a healthy dose of Coke poured over it and a passel of ice cubes. The kindly booze doctor twisted on the Spirits Smoother and poured me a straight shot. Indeed it was smooth as a newborn baby's butt with a silky warm finish, and no sting! Off went the aerator/tannin blaster and another shot was poured. One sip of that and I literally looked for a place to discharge the foul concoction, like it was some corn whiskey brewed in a Tennessee outhouse!

This device, at around $30 bucks, could introduce a New Age of Alcoholism in this fine nation of ours. People who once eschewed the devil's drink will now hold out their cocktail glasses like supplicants, begging for a wee hit of No-Name, grocery store bourbon or K-Mart cognac. The Spirits Smoother works best with brown spirits, and the Wine Smoother young, tannic reds. Whatever your poison, the road to ruin just became a far less painful experience. Bottoms up, sinners!

Okay, I admit it, when it comes to games, I prefer the sweat and tumble of the 3-D experience to holding a joystick and simulating away. Very twentieth century, I know! Then along comes the Wii Motion Plus technology that actually uses your entire body as the controller, and allows for some truly interactive thrills and spills. For we of the heather and gorse, legendary golf instructor David Leadbetter's "My Personal Golf Trainer" is a cheap and painless way to get your swing analyzed without flying to Florida and dropping $5K on an intensive one-on-one clinic.

The beautiful thing about Leadbetter's entry into this crowded field is that it is both a game and a learning environment. Instructional videos and drills pound DL's "7 Steps to a Better Swing" basics into your head, then off you go to the practice range and eventually the full 18-hole experience -- trees, water hazards and all. Grip, posture, alignment, ball position, coil, swing shape and tempo -- everything you need to know to go from hacker to smacker without passing Go!

The Motion Plus controller actually records the full golf swing from address to follow-through, which you can then compare to an ideal swing to find the weak spots. The results can be viewed in 3-D, from different angles and slowed-down to molasses-vision for detailed analysis. Hats off to the big brains at Design Data Interactive and Professor Leadbetter -- this is no toy, it's a bona fide living room golf clinic in chewable bits and bytes. See you in the fairway.....

The New Millennium means it's time to digitize your analog artifacts forevermore, lest fire, flood, earthquake or divine intervention rob one of one's memories, record albums or home movies. The Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner is the perfect tool for converting both film and photos, as well as mere text documents, with stunning clarity and ease of operation. Luddites, rejoice! One needn't wear a pocket protector and speak Geek in order to reduce a file cabinet worth of flotsam into one DVD's worth of data storage. Our incredible shrinking world....

Even better, what used to be the pricey province of digital imaging service centers can now be part of your home arsenal for a mere couple of hundred samoleans. For that modest sum, you still get 6,400 pixel-per-inch optical resolution and an LED light source that won't have you thumb-twiddling while waiting for the contraption to warm up. At which point, finger-on-button is all you have to do to achieve high-quality, suitable for framing scans.

Mind you, there are also some high end image manipulation features for the power user. Digital ICE (image correction and enhancement) is your virtual scratch and dust remover for those Ektachromes you shot at the 1964 World's Fair, and the Professional mode allows you to control color balance and saturation in addition to a cool backlight correction feature. And the software bundle includes Adobe Photoshop Elements as well as Epson's own Easy Photo Fix that restores faded colors to their original glory. For price, performance and versatility, the V500 is a great choice for a broad range of consumers. P.S., its plug and play Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface makes the scanning process all the less painful! The Age of Restoration is upon us again!!

The music wars are over -- you can all come out of your cubbyholes! With a Sonos multi-room music distribution rig in your home or office, Junior can be streaming the Jonas Brothers in the playroom while Daddy digs his Miles Davis -- all without wires, all snatched out of the air like a ghost with a butterfly net. Sonos finds the 10,000 tracks you purloined from the internets, plays any of the 25K web-radio stations and can even access the millions of tracks at Napster and Last.fm. You'd better really love music, cuz this system is going to deliver it in buckets! Torrents, even!

Sonos is an elegant, if a bit immodest as an investment -- music-streaming solution. A bundled system costs about a grand for starters, and then you have to add individual ZonePlayers to add more rooms to the set-up. But once you've opened the box, you're almost ready to rock. With a high-speed internet connection and a router in place, the ZonePlayer plugs right in and delivers a strong signal throughout the house.

The breaking news is how easily the Sonos system works with the new iPhone or iPod touch controller app. A free download from the Apple Apps Store, this nifty bit of software enables you to touchscreen your way around a map of the house, search for tracks, group zones together -- all from the comfort of your recliner. And a $99 ZoneBridge extends the range of your wireless system to the farthest reaches -- the wine cellar, the bowling alley, the meditation room. Ravi Shankar in one, Lotte Lenya in the other -- Sonos liberates music from the living room and spreads the love liberally. This is superb technology.

If you are at all like me, even armed with many years experience stringing together recording studios and stereo systems and the like, the prospect of setting up and calibrating a home theater rig has always caught me up short. Too many speakers, not enough wall-space, too many wires, etc. It's enough to drive one back to the era of rabbit ears and one five-inch speaker. Alas, the world moves too fast!

Enter the user-conscious genius-minds at Polk Audio and their SurroundBar SDA Instant Home Theater, a five-minute, no heavy lifting solution to the tinny audio that came with your cash-intensive flatscreen investment. Directions: Unbox, connect audio cable from TV to SurroundBar, plug in power to SB and wireless Subwoofer -- turn the mutha on! Pour high fructose drink over ice and consume sodium-laden cholesterol nibbles and the tableau is complete!

On the egghead side, the secret to the great sound is Polk's patented SDA (Stereo Dimensional Array) technology, a way to enjoy crisp dialogue from a solid center channel, while still managing to tickle your eardrums with a deep bass, 3-D sound envelope that heightens realism whether gaming or watching some effects-heavy action flick. All that without having a nerd squad functionary tramp through house and home at fifty smackers an hour. Warm, clear and immediate Polk sound minus the fuss and muss -- sounds like an easy way out of the techno-muddle such luxuries usually entail.

There are countless ways to skin a cat, fewer to cook the cute little four-paws (or any of its esteemed mammalian brethren). Char-Broil has come up with a new one: Red, the outdoor grill that keeps hot air out of the cooking area and instead radiates infrared energy at the cut of your choice. The result is astounding -- uniform distribution of heat and no chance of sputtering, fat-induced flare-ups. That leaves the genial host ample time to mix umbrella drinks and make with the one-liners. Sweet....

The three-burner Red is available for under $600 exclusively at Home Depot and comes equipped with a handy side burner and optional rotisserie. You can crank this marvel up to 700 degrees and sear in the flavor on a steak, or ratchet it down low and slow to smoke a big ole' pork shoulder. Wood chips can be dropped through the porcelain grates to add that hickory or oak footnote to your magnum opus.

For all you green goblins out there, Char-Broil has engineered this grill to use a third less gas than competing models, so you can cook with a conscience. A conversion kit is also available to switch to natural gas instead of propane. Electronic ignition obviates the need for matches or lighters, and a self-cleaning cycle means you won't be slaving away with a scrub brush and blasting caps once the cooking is done. The stainless steel and cranberry design motif is also a winner.

Admit it: Every time you see some doofus wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, you chuckle to yourself and whisper, "Who is this bloody eejit with the jalapeño pepper coming out of his ear?" Or maybe it's just me. No matter, salvation has arrived courtesy of Tri-Specs, a company hep enough to know that reality ain't worth a farthing if it doesn't also account for appearance! Translation: Bluetooth-embedded sunglasses that deliver high fashion and high-fidelity without sacrificing either. That's what I call cool....

Bossman Isaac Levy's technology is simple, yet elegant. Combine one's need for full-bodied wireless sound with fashion-forward eyewear and be able to switch between your Bluetooth enabled music player and cellphone with a mere push of a button. In other words, you can go from Miles Davis to your mother-in-law in nothing flat, and hear the former's sleek muted trumpet with the same clarity as the shrill syllables of the latter. Too bad the advanced noise elimination design can't mute her out altogether! One can only dream...

Available for men and women both in six different colors, and in several different tints for the lenses, Tri-Specs wouldn't be out of place on some chichi dining terrace, nor out on the golf course. Conveniently, the lenses pop out to accommodate those of us in need of prescription shades. Inconspicuous earbuds fit snugly and comfortably, and microphones near the joints of the legs insure that you can hear and be heard. Volume controls and voice dialing activation buttons are but a fingertip away. The glasses run a good five-to-seven hours on a charge and retail for around $200 clams. People may wonder why you're walking down the street muttering to yourself or singing along to Sinatra, but what better excuse to fend off panhandlers and zealots?

Want superior audio and video, but still need a few shekels left over to feed the family? Denon's DVD-1800BD delivers eye-popping 1080p/24p images and crystalline sounds for under $500. Denon does make high-end units as well, but you get the best of their tech-brainpower for a tenth of the price with this quite impressive unit. Goldmund -- as a point of reference -- sells their Eidos 20BD player for around $20K, which is as good a definition of overkill as I can think of. Buy Denon and send the other $19.5K to Uncle Bernie Madoff for safekeeping. Don't forget the hacksaw.

The array of Blu-Ray titles continues to explode, and are also coming down in price. Some studios are even offering multi-disc sets that include a Blu-Ray version as well as a standard DVD. That way you have a copy at home for the HD experience, and one you can jam in the laptop for the kids to enjoy on the ride down to grandma's pad. Amazon has a "buy two, get one free" promo going, another vote in favor of upgrading your home video setup. On the downside, Netflix is now charging a premium for Blu-Ray subscribers: bad for us, good for its stock price!

While Denon does not offer BD-Live capability with an Ethernet port, it does deliver on the bread-and-butter of audio and video. The 1800BD features HDMI 1.3a with Deep Color and Bonus View support, as well as full bitstream output of Dolby and DTS-HD audio formats. Even without the Ethernet port, you can download additional content from the Internet and load it onto an SD card that the player will accept. If you fancy subtitles and camera angles and trailers and games, they are easy to add to the already copious features included on a Blu-Ray disc. My most anticipated disc? A 45th anniversary edition of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, replete with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott interviews and cold war experts discussing the film's prescient take on that high-tension epoch. Due date June 16.